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Thirty three Year 9 students enjoyed an adventurous geography weekend at the Start Bay Field Studies Centre. Activities included a coastal walk to investigate the issues of erosion in the past at Hallsands and more recently at Beesands. They also took part in variety of activities including canoeing on Slapton Ley, fire-making, toasting marshmallows and a low ropes course. Lucy said “overall the stay was amazing and we were really well looked after. I would love to go there again” and Jenna “really enjoyed the weekend and learnt a lot”.

It can often take a while to settle into the culture and expectation of a new workplace, but the fifteen newly-appointed staff at Hele’s School in Plympton have settled in very well since September and certainly hit the ground running.

Miss Mason, Principal, said, “I have been thrilled to be able to recruit such a high calibre of staff from a national field to join Team Hele’s, and am confident they will add strength and depth to an already effective line-up of teachers and associate personnel. I’m particularly pleased that almost half of all our new appointments have been in English, Maths and Science, given that there is a well-publicised national shortage of teachers in these curriculum areas. Such strong recruitment shows that Hele’s is an attractive place to work – and why wouldn’t it be given the wonderful nature of our students, parents and staff body?”

We have recently appointed Ben Gillet and Darcey Heath as the new Head Boy and Head Girl. Ben and Darcey commented “In our role as Head Boy and Girl, we hope to be able to make sure that everyone is involved in our school community. We also hope we can represent the students within the school, so that they can have a voice. The Junior Leadership Team is made up of ourselves, the Deputy Head Boy and Girl and Assistant Heads and collectively we work to involve all students in making our school a great place to be. After being at the school for seven years, we want to give something back to the school as we understand what it is like being a student. We are incredibly proud to have been appointed to the role of Head Boy and Head Girl and are looking forward to experiencing the great opportunities and facing the challenges that it will bring. The Junior Leadership Team hopes that this year we will be able to play our part and help support the students through our collective effort and fresh ideas.”

Miss Mason, Principal, is thrilled with the calibre and passion of the new appointments, claiming, “Student leadership is a strong feature of Hele’s School; the golden thread that ties together a whole range of experiences and opportunities to develop character and leadership in our young people from age 11 to 18. The Junior Leadership Team is the pinnacle of those opportunities and is a very important part of school improvement. It mirrors the composition and core purpose of my own Senior Leadership Team, with its own budget, autonomy and priorities. The Senior Leadership Team and Junior Leadership Team meet formally once a term with a very clear agenda around school improvement. We share a determination and drive to want to work in partnership to ensure that the opportunities we provide for our young people are never short of exceptional. I am very excited to be able to work with this new team of student leaders this year and know we will achieve some remarkable things.”

We are delighted to invite you to a meeting with your child’s tutor. Meetings will be conducted on Tuesday 11th October from 4.00 – 7.00 pm and will consist of a 5 minute conversation with your child’s tutor. In order that tutors can meet with all parents we will need to be strict with our timekeeping on this evening.

This will be an opportunity to discuss how your child has settled into Hele’s School and to make contact with your child’s tutor at the start of the school year, which forms an important part of our Transition Programme. The tutor will not have any assessment information on your child at this stage, and will not be in a position to be able to comment on particular curriculum areas, although any comments can be passed on to teaching staff. The forum for subject specific conversations will be via the Subject Teacher and Parent meetings that are scheduled for later in the academic year.

Year 10 have been thoroughly enjoying the Language Leader Project which the school has been running throughout this academic year.

The students, led by Modern Language Teacher Mrs Greet, had several plans to ensure that the project would be a success with the aim of getting other students as excited about learning a language as they are.

They planned to run a Lunchtime Language Club for Year 7 students, they went in to assemblies to promote the sessions and they have also delivered a series of activities as well as offering support with homework on a weekly basis.

As part of the programme they also had to take the Leader Language Project further afield and deliver lessons to Year 5 primary school children. Eight Hele’s School students visited Boringdon Primary School, also in Plympton, to give the young enthusiasts a chance to learn some German!

All the students worked extremely hard and this was shown by some of the comments made by the year 5 children: Chloe commented “I liked absolutely everything about learning German”, Harvey said “I liked that the instructors were working on our level” and Fred said “I like it because the instructors are students and still learning”.

Mrs Greet, MFL teacher at Hele’s, accompanied the eight Language Learners on their mission to Boringdon School and commented “I was very proud of all our students, they were patient and their enthusiasm for learning a foreign language definitely rubbed off on our younger learners at Boringdon School”.

Miss Mason, is an advocate of finding opportunities for students to act as superb ambassadors for Hele’s School. “Student leadership is a golden thread of our school; we work hard to ensure our young people are supported to grow into leadership positions and to act as role models for younger children, both within our community and across Plymouth. We are very much looking forward to welcoming these young students to Hele’s in the near future and ensuring that this level of support from the older students will continue throughout their education at Hele’s”.

Students pictured from left to right: Rebekkah Sheasby, Hannah Dykes and Annie Curtis

The University of Exeter have designed a programme to encourage more students in state schools and colleges to apply to go on to further education.

The programme, called Pathways to Law, helps academically able students in the South West by giving them expertise in law and experience of student life. All this knowledge and advice if offered to them throughout their two years in Post-16, this then helps to prepare them for life in further education.

Post-16 students who are the first in their family to apply to continue on to university get expert advice and mentoring for a period of two years. They are also able to apply for various scholarships that are offered by the University of Exeter.

Three students from Hele’s School in Plympton were fortunate enough to be part of the programme. Annie Curtis, Rebekah Sheasby and Hannah Dykes immersed themselves in all the lectures and workshops on offer at the University and recently graduated with flying colours from the Pathways to Law programme.

Justine Mason, Principal at the Plympton school commented….. “We are always keen to get involved in schemes that extend opportunities and raise aspirations of the young people in our care; our link with Exeter University through the Pathways to Law programme is just one example of how we do this. I am so proud of the achievements of Annie, Rebekah and Hannah Dykes.

Having myself been the first and only member of my extended family to go to University, I have a passion for ensuring all our students, regardless of background, dream big, aim high and work hard to achieve their aspirations wherever they lie. Not everyone would like to go to University, and for some it might not be a suitable progression route, but we have a moral obligation as Educators to open everyone’s eyes to the full menu of opportunities that exist beyond Sixth Form and to support young people to take that next step after graduating from Hele’s.”

All three Hele’s School students are now excited about their future plans at University.

On Wednesday 9th March, thirty-two members of the Hele’s School Leadership Academy Young Ambassadors traveled to Plymouth University for a celebration and awards day. The day included workshops to improve different areas of their leadership roles and reward sessions after the workshops. The ambassadors were split off into 4 workshops: Event Organising, Sports Media, Team Manager/ Start Coaching and Sports Officiating. These workshops were led by members from the university or by a PSSP member of staff to make sure we are properly trained in our specific workshop.

After the workshops the ambassadors representing the school got the opportunity to be involved in fun activities as a reward for their hard work and dedication throughout the academic year. These activities included a unique opportunity to participate in the universities 4D universe projector room, a T-shirt making competition and inflatable sumo wrestling.

Staff and students at Hele’s School have been celebrating the success of the Leadership Academy for winning The Sarah Barrow Award (Leadership Academy of the Year Award). The ambassadors thoroughly enjoyed the day and it will be a memorable event for all the students and staff.

Year 7 students begin life at Hele’s by being asked to get together with four other students and to create a business during tutor time.

Head of Year 7 Mr Clemow Said: “Their mission is to create sustainable Christmas gifts that can be sold at a real Christmas Fair in December. The current Year 7 went through the process of research, development, finance and marketing to try and create the best product to sell.”

On December 11th, the year 7 students went onto sell these high quality gifts to over 500 people at a real Christmas Fair hosted on school grounds. As a year group, they managed to raise an incredible £1800 in just one hour of trading for the charity CLIC Sargent.

CLIC Sargent is the UK’s leading cancer charity for children and young people, and their families. CLIC Sargent are there from diagnosis onwards and aim to help the whole family deal with the impact of cancer and its treatment, life after treatment and, in some cases, bereavement.

Mr Clemow continued saying: “Following this success, students were challenged again: this time to find a charity to send all of this money to. Ben Sluman, whose younger sister has been fantastically supported by CLIC Sargent, created a presentation along with some friends and was chosen by his tutor group to represent them at a final year group presentation. Ben was up against 7 other outstanding presentations but still delivered a heart-felt and impassioned plea for the year group to support CLIC Sargent who have been a constant source of support for his family”.

Between April 2014 and April 2015 CLIC Sargent supported 64 families in Cornwall providing them with practical, emotional and financial support to help them overcome the obstacles that a childhood cancer brings.

CLIC Sargent Fundraising Jordan Anderton, who attended the cheque presentation on Thursday 17th March, said: “I would like to say a huge well done to all of Year 7’s at Hele’s School for this amazing achievement. The money you have raised will make a real difference to the young people that CLIC Sargent support and you should be extremely proud of what you have achieved.”

The money that Hele’s school have donated could pay for ten young people to take part in a residential weekend at Malcolm Sargent House, CLIC Sargent’s holiday home in Ayrshire, where young people can meet others with similar experiences, helping them to feel less isolated.

If you would like to support CLIC Sargent and the families we support, please contact CLIC Sargent Fundraising Manager Jordan Anderton on 07876653829or email: jordan.anderton@clicsargent.org.uk